Kita Alexander shares why she dialled back her pop career to be ‘family first’ with Owen Wright

After years of supporting her surf champ husband Owen Wright, who had a traumatic head injury, Kita Alexander has revealed how she can now chase her music career.

Now it’s time for pop singer songwriter Kita Alexander’s tour.

For the past seven years, Alexander has toured the world supporting her surfing champion husband Owen Wright, and their children Vali and Rumi.

As Wright called time on his professional career at Bells Beach this month after his valiant comeback from the traumatic brain injury he suffered at Hawaii’s Pipeline in December 2015, Alexander reignited her pop ambitions.

Her ridiculously fun new single called Queen, was released in the same week Wright, who fought back from his horrific injury to win competitions and a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics, retired from the World Surfing League.

Australian pop artist Kita Alexander. Picture: Supplied

Doctors advised him suffering future concussions in big surf could impact his long-term health.

From the family home near Byron Bay, where they also care for Wright’s father Rob who has dementia, Alexander said they are now able to exhale.

“It’s been a lot. It’s never been a smooth ride for him and me being the support person, it’s been hard. It’s just been a constant battle with health, with his dad’s health, the head injury,” she said.

“He’s so proud of what he’s done. He feels like he’s achieved all that he wanted to achieve, which, at the end of the day, is the most important thing.”

Kita Alexander embraces husband Owen Wright after competing at the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach in Victoria earlier this month. Picture: Beatriz Ryder/World Surf League

Alexander and Wright had only been in a relationship for a couple of months when a wipeout at Pipeline’s shallow, jagged reef break during a practice session left him fighting to relearn how to talk, walk and surf for 15 months.

She had just released Like You Want To, her second EP, which achieved gold status sales and was all over Triple J.

Their son Vali arrived in late 2016 and Hotel, her third EP, dropped in April 2017, reaching double platinum status as Alexander’s eclectic mix of polished electro pop and emotionally charged coastal songwriter vibe generated tens of millions of streams.

Kita Alexander and Owen Wright with son Vali and daughter Rumi. Picture: Supplied

She kept a presence on the airwaves over the next five years with a succession of singles as she travelled with Wright on his comeback trail and then welcomed daughter Rumi in early 2021.

The pair, along with Wright’s sister and women’s surf champion Tyler, shared their health and life battles on the AppleTV+ docuseries Make or Break which followed the World Championship contest.

The family celebrated Wright’s retirement from competitive surfing at the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach on April 9 this year. Picture: Beatriz Ryder/World Surf League

Alexander has maintained her pop profile with a succession of killer singles. Picture: Supplied.

For Alexander, her new single Queen signals a refiring of her desire to join pop’s big leagues, a taste of the long-awaited debut album in the works.

Its chorus has her standing in a spotlight on the stage of the iconic Madison Square Garden arena in New York. Now, she wants it all.

“I’ve still been releasing music but I haven’t put my all into it. I’m family first and I made the decision that I didn’t want our children to grow up with both parents in different countries or be left with a nanny more than one or two nights,” she said.

“So I pulled back on my stuff a lot … I only started probably saying yes to music when I had an inkling that Owen was going to retire. I wanted at least one parent to be at home for the kids.”

Alexander’s new single signals a refiring of her desire to join pop’s big leagues. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

The new single was inspired by her kitchen solo dance sessions during Covid when Wright was away for four months preparing for and then competing at the Tokyo Olympics. Keeping it in the family, Queen opens with a freestyle beatbox from six-year-old Vali.

Alexander, tall and long-limbed, has always harboured a crippling phobia of dancing in public; she was forced to face that fear during the guerrilla video shoot where she had to bust out moves at locations around Byron.

“I had a stupid childhood insecurity that now I’m realising was so f … ing stupid,” she said.

“I was really nervous to do the music video, I told them it wasn’t going to work because the whole video revolves around me dancing and I suck at dancing in front of people.

“I literally did it for 11 hours, for the phone video, the super eight and stills. And when I watched it back, I really noticed that hey, I’m not actually that bad.

“The song is borne out of insecurity but it’s been cathartic.”

Although Wright couldn’t resist a playful dig when she posted a clip promoting the video with his cheeky comment “Your dancing has come a lonnngggg way” on one of the snippets she shared on Instagram.

In his own Insta tribute to Queen’s release, he sang her praises.

“It’s going to be really exciting to tour with Kita Alexander. She is such a hard worker and to hear Queen finally out and blasted on Triple J is amazing!! Congratulations baby let’s goo!!”

Alexander heads out on her debut headlining tour next month, with the opening night at the Black Bear Lodge in Brisbane on May 18 already sold out.

There are limited tickets available for her gigs at Mary’s Underground in Sydney on May 19 and the Northcote Social Club in Melbourne on May 20.

For all ticket details, https://www.kitaalexander.com/tour